A water bomber plane which was fighting forest fires crashed early Friday evening near Vila Nova de Foz Coa, in the north of Portugal, causing the death of the pilot, its sole occupant.
The aircraft was a mid-size, FireBoss-type aircraft. “It is with great dismay that I learned of the death of the pilot of the plane which crashed while fighting a fire”, reacted Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on his Twitter account.
Foi com grande consternação que tomei conhecimento do falecimento do piloto que operava uma aeronave que caiu esta tarde no combate ao incêndio em Torre de Moncorvo.
Endereço as mais sentidas condolências à família e amigos.— António Costa (@antoniocostapm) July 15, 2022
In this country plagued for a week with scorching temperatures and a series of fires, the emergency services identified a dozen active fires on Friday evening, which mobilised more than 900 firefighters.
“At this stage, we have no details on what happened,” national civil protection commander André Fernandes told the media beforehand.
On Wednesday in Greece, two of the four members of the crew of a helicopter which took part in the fight against a forest fire on the island of Samos were killed when the aircraft crashed into the sea.
